Autonomous vehicles, such as the type designed to transport passengers, for example, may be designed to autonomously navigate a computed trajectory (e.g., a computed path). One operational objective of the autonomous vehicle should be to avoid collisions with other vehicles, pedestrians or other obstacles that may be encountered during operation of the autonomous vehicle. However, the autonomous vehicle may share the road with other vehicles, pedestrians and other obstacles which may by their actions create situations that may result in a potential collision with the autonomous vehicle or otherwise threaten the safety of passengers in the autonomous vehicle.
As one example, an object approaching the autonomous vehicle may collide with the autonomous vehicle due to inattention of the driver of the approaching vehicle. However, a point of impact of the object with the autonomous vehicle may not be at an optimal location due to an orientation of the autonomous vehicle relative to the object at the point of impact. As one example, the autonomous vehicle may have an impact absorbing structure (e.g., a crumple zone), but the impact absorbing structure may not be positioned at the point of impact at the time of the collision. As another example, the impact force may be of a magnitude that only minor damage may be done to the autonomous vehicle, but the impact may nevertheless cause damage to the vehicle and may result in the vehicle being taken out of service, causing an inconvenience to the passengers. Finally, prior to the collision occurring, there may be adequate time for the autonomous vehicle to maneuver to avoid the collision or to orient the autonomous vehicle to mitigate potential damage to the autonomous vehicle and/or its passengers.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems, apparatus and methods to implement active safety systems in an autonomous vehicle that avoid and/or mitigate effects of a collision.
Although the above-described drawings depict various examples of the invention, the invention is not limited by the depicted examples. It is to be understood that, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Also, it is understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale.